King Acid

23- NO MAN'S LAND

Conan lowered his guard for a moment. Long enough for Landau to get the draw and land a right in his jaw, sending him straight down to kiss the canvas. Landau felt enticed to ask him if he was hurt, but the evidence forced him to dismiss the idea.

"You've told me not to hold back."

"I know what I told ya," said Seiber, after spitting blood, "but for the record, I slipped on a puddle of sweat."

"You sure you want me to hit you that hard?"

Seiber shook his head bleakly.

"They'll likely have reservations about attacking you for fear of killing you, so you'll have to take advantage of any shortcoming on their side. Besides, I'm old school, and I was taught two men can't be true friends until they've fought at least once."

"Oh, yeah? And how many times has my brother kicked your ass?"

"More than I'm ashamed to admit."

Seiber swung his foam knife and plunged forward. Skyler squatted while leaning back and grabbed Seiber's hips to leverage his momentum. They both went to the ground and Skyler tried to reach the knife, but Conan kicked sideways at Skyler's propped arm and made him fall on his side. Before Seiber could go for the knife, Skyler hauled off his other three limbs like springs on the ground and tackled Seiber violently with his back. The sound of bones stifled by sinews resonated through the whole ward as they both rolled over and stood, catching their breath.

"And Abel? How many times did he have to knock you out before he made you think he was a nice guy?"

"Well, sometimes life gives you lemons, and sometimes it gives you pineapples and sticks 'em up your asshole."

Skyler leaned forward and propped his hands on his knees.

"What would've happened if Light and I hadn't been there?"

"He couldn't have killed me. He doesn't know how to fly a plane. Plus, I could have sent an electric charge to the crew leader to wake him up in case of an emergency. I just wanted to let his argument play out. Don't make yourself a hero just yet."

"Yeah, well, you need to pick better friends."

At that moment, a kind of sober beeping alarm rang across the room, and then faded rapidly away.

"What was that?" asked Landau.

"Cedric wants me in the cockpit. OK, catch a breath. Come with me. Maybe he wants to see you, too."

They were there as soon as Seiber stopped talking. Even behind the beard and sunglasses, Cedric's face was noticeably restless.

"Got a fighter on our tail."

Seiber propped his chin up on his fist.

"Seems off...what airspace are we in?"

"Sudan's, about to cross the border."

"Could it be a Sudanese fighter monitoring us?"

"I think so. It's been tilting gradually to our five since I noticed it. Seems it wants us to bank to the left to kick us out of Sudan and shake us into Egypt."

"That makes some sense, especially given that fighter doesn't seem to have enough fuel to keep up with us."

"What if it's the person who put in the transmitter?" asked Landau.

"What would they achieve by tailing us? They won't attack in a sovereign airspace."

"Not to mention they won't risk shooting us down and messing up your face," Cedric intervened.